Scheduling in a generic perspective:Knowledge-based decision support by domain analysis and cognitive task analysis

Creating computer systems to perform a task that requires expert knowledge is complex. To a certain extent, the developer has to gain the task expertise himself in order to design adequate decision support. Several methods are available to capture the knowledge of an expert and to implement this in a knowledge based system. However, these methods do not make adequate use of previous experiences encountered in development trajectories in the same problem domain.We were confronted with this problem in the domain of planning and scheduling. In building knowledge based systems for scheduling support (e.g., ZKR, for nurse scheduling) we realized that there could be possibilities for reuse. We saw several similarities in different scheduling domains as well as in the systems, but were unable to get a grip on the issue at once. An adequate apparatus for modeling the scheduling domain, the task execution, and the supporting systems was missing.We developed a framework based on object orientation, cognitive task analysis, and decision support systems. The framework captures the underlying structure of the scheduling task in a modeling approach using ideas from literature about modeling and reuse such as modeling by analogy, Case Based Reasoning, and CommonKads. It can be used to tackle problems in different scheduling settings, thereby facilitating the development process of scheduling support systems.